Rick Kam, President and CEO, ID Experts and Christine Arevalo, director of healthcare identity management, ID Experts write: Healthcare fraud is costing American taxpayers up to $234 billion annually, based on estimates from the FBI. It’s no wonder that a stolen medical identity has a $50 street value, according to the World Privacy Forum –…
Category: Health Data
UK: Children’s centre loses sensitive family details
From This is North Devon: Sensitive personal data on a number of vulnerable families who use a specialist children’s centre in North Devon has been stolen. The confidential information on 45 families was on a USB computer data stick. It was lost when a member of staff at the Victoria House Children’s Centre in Barnstaple,…
MA: Hospital investigating how patient papers got lost
John Zaremba reports: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center is scrambling to figure out how files containing patient information wound up on the ground outside a Charlestown office complex, miles from the hospital’s Brighton campus. An employee of Roadrunner Moving and Storage found the paperwork Friday outside the company’s Terminal Drive offices, near the landmark Schrafft center,…
Ca: Medical records breach was an employee error
Here’s a follow-up to a breach previously mentioned on this blog. Tyler Olsen reports: A Fraser Health spokesperson says an investigation into the discovery of private medical records on a local street concluded that Chilliwack General Hospital’s privacy policies are adequate and that the breach was caused by a single employee. In late September, a…
Newly revealed incidents from HHS's breach tool
HHS recently updated its breach notification tool and added seven incidents that have not been previously reported on this blog. In the first incident, Robert S. Smith, M.D., Inc. of Georgia notified HHS that a laptop theft on October 17, 2011 affected 17,000 patients. In researching this incident, I found a breach notification: HIPAA Breach…
UK: Cumbrian Hospitals Trust opens investigation after patients' details 'left on train'
Pamela McGowan reports: A probe has been launched after patients at north Cumbria’s hospitals were told some of their information had been lost on a train. A number of patients this week received letters informing them that personal details have gone missing. It is not known how many people are affected or the exact nature…